Explaining why social stratification is linked to value orientations, voting behaviour, and health outcomes in Western societies is the bedrock of his research program. Informed by the Weberian distinction between class and status, Jeroen analyses how both economic and cultural stratification independently affect value orientations, voting behaviour and health, by means of very different mechanisms, and each in various ways.

In order to do so, he goes beyond providing 'explanations' by means of re-establishing well-established empirical generalisations. Instead, the mechanism-based approach applied in Jeroen van der Waal's research programme considers such empirical generalisations mere starting points for research, that is, as patterns that need to be explained by uncovering the mechanisms that underlie these.